


come out of hiding I'm right here beside you

by ameliajessica



Category: The Black Tapes Podcast
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 13:01:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6520783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameliajessica/pseuds/ameliajessica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So, his professional, best friend opinion: Alex Reagan, not a sap.</p><p>But the way she was around Strand completely changed his assertion on the matter."</p><p>Or: Nic is really, really done with watching Alex and Strand dance around each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	come out of hiding I'm right here beside you

**Author's Note:**

> yeah I don't know how this happened but it did and I love them
> 
> also I'm not up to date with the podcast so forgive any inconsistencies

If you had asked him, Nic wouldn’t have pegged Alex Reagan for a romantic. She was idealistic, sure, and maybe even romantic in the classic sense of the word. She always wanted stories to be bigger, better and was convinced there was more beneath the surface, no matter how trivial. But a sap? Not at all.

She’d dated, sure, but nothing serious and when she had been interested in a guy, it had consistently been ‘not a big deal’ – that was a phrase she used a lot. “Oh Steve from HR asked me out,” she’d say before recording. “It’s not a big deal, but I guess we’ll see where it goes.” And it never did go.

So, his professional, best friend opinion: Alex Reagan, not a sap.

But the way she was around Strand completely changed his assertion on the matter.

It was a little ridiculous to be honest.

Like this one time, Strand walked in the office, briefcase in hand, fixing his glasses and scanning his eyes across the room. Alex had been talking amicably to Nic and an intern, but the minute her eyes stopped on Strand her entire expression and posture softened and Nic swore she breathed out, “Richard.” Straight out of a Jane Austen novel.

Strand responded appropriately (Nic was starting to think maybe they planned this stuff), freaking slowing to a stop in his step and saying, “Alex,” in return. Alex went to him – which again, ridiculous. They weren’t NPR, their office wasn’t big enough for anyone to _go to_ anyone – clutching her papers to her chest.

The rest of their conversation was quiet enough that he couldn't hear but it still managed to be so intimate and tender in their body language that even looking at it felt like intruding. But, honestly if you watched (and Nic will admit he has – what? No shame. Alex was his best friend and this stuff baffled him beyond any Black Tape), they didn’t even say that much to each other. Both then, in those moments, but in general.

Like one time, the three of them were in the office, prepping to record, and Alex got a particularly hateful bit of mail sent straight to her personal email. She tried to laugh it off but the second Strand stood in her space, gazing concernedly down at her and saying nothing at all, her face crumbled. The way he placed a hand on her shoulder spoke volumes to how much he wanted to gather her up in his frame. But he carried on just looking at her, and she sniffed, wiped her eyes and looked up back up at him. After a while, her mouth quirked up in a grateful smile and Strand nodded to himself, and sat back down. And to the listener at home, they’d be none the wiser other than the uncharacteristic gentle tone Strand adopted to explain exactly why she was wrong. But Nic? Nic was privy to all the anxious looks Strand would shoot her way. And Alex would send him looks just as loaded back.

Don’t even get Nic started on when they fought. Again, it was some _Pride and Prejudice_ bullshit with terse words and repressing the obscenities they were clearly desperate to scream at each other before one of them would storm out, and the office would hold its breath to return to normalcy. Then a few days later, like clockwork Alex would either get a phonecall, and take it outside of the office and the initial frown on her face would fade into a reluctant but fond laugh. Then she would come back in and innocently say, “That was Strand, he said he would stop by later with some new Black Tape material.”

If it was especially bad, Strand would call and invite her to meet and she’d leave the office in a unenthusiastic huff, but come back perky and with a box of pastries for everyone. The whiplash was damaging to his blood pressure, the least of which because of the carbs.

And, of course, there was the little things. The devil in the details and all that. Like Strand knowing her Starbucks order, and bringing it sporadically to her office, sometimes seemingly just to tease her about her terrible taste in hot beverages. Or Alex not needing to consult Strand when an intern came round to take lunch orders. Seriously, no matter what restaurant, Alex knew what to get for Strand. One time a new intern had even asked Strand himself, but he'd been on the phone and sent her to Alex instead.

For a while he thought that Alex didn’t know, like in herself. Mostly because she didn’t tell him, and they told each other everything (for better or worse. Alex had whined to him multiple times about her difficulty facing Amalia with the shit she'd had revealed to her). In hindsight, it was stupid to think a girl as smart as Alex wouldn’t be that self-aware, but  there were times when he caught her just looking at Strand. Maybe it was a sign that he was way too involved in the project, but if he had to pick a word he would say she looked entranced. And Strand wouldn’t even be _doing_ anything, just on the phone to his assistant or flicking through tape footage but there Alex would be, eyes helplessly on him like Strand was a puzzle she was dying to piece together.

It had been on his mind to bring it up but then there was a time he was editing and in the recording was one of those infamous, personal conversations between the two of them. Right in the middle of a standard interview, so he had to listen to it to get the actual episode footage. 

 _“What would you do...”_ Alex’s voice was tentative, shy. _“If Coralee is back, what would be the ideal scenario for you?”_

Strand cleared his throat. _“Well, if she is alive, she’s been hiding from me for over 20 years. That time apart aside, clearly she doesn’t want to be with me anymore so no matter what I want, it’s not like our marriage could just resume.”_

 _“Right, of course.”_ God, poor Alex. He heard her start scuffling her papers. _“Well –”_

_“I don’t, by the way.”_

_“You don’t, what?”_

_“Want our marriage to resume.”_

_“You don’t?”_

_“No.”_

_“Because of the affair? Or...”_

Strand sighed heavily. _“Because of the affair; because if she is alive – and that’s a big if – she let me mourn her and abandoned me for longer than we were together. Because it’s been 20 years. We’re –_ I’m _different than who I was when we were married._

 _“My feelings...”_ There was a long pause. _“My feelings are no longer directed at her.”_

_“They’re not?”_

_“No. They haven’t been... for a while now.”_

_“Is that... good?”_

_“It depends.”_

_“On?”_

_“On what the other party has to say about it.”_

_“Right.”_

_“Yes.”_

More silence. Then Alex, in a murmur: _“I think it’s good.”_

There was shuffling. Nic thought maybe Strand was moving in his chair. _“You do?”_

 _“I do.”_ Another beat. _“But that’s just my opinion as a journalist. You’d have to ask a doctor.”_

Strand let out an exhale that doesn’t sound unlike a laugh. Alex giggled quietly, breathlessly, and moved on with the interview.

He cut the conversation from the episode, but the rest of the footage felt just as telling, with their voices inappropriately bright and flirty as they discussed a grisly murder and potential kidnapping. Honestly. Ridiculous.

Nic decided that it was none of his business, and posted the episode anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> drop a review if ya feel like it, I read them and they make me smile


End file.
